The doctor walked out of the ward and into the waiting room, where Lionel and Sesi waited. Lionel paced around in circles, and Sesi sat with her head bowed and arms crossed over her chest.
Aaron had gone for a walk after he had come out of Zera’s ward an hour ago. He was barely himself, and though they worried about him, they couldn’t stop him. Ivan followed him and kept an eye on him, and he charged Sesi with the responsibility of watching over Zera’s ward to make sure only the doctors went in.
Lionel was the first to notice the doctor and nurse’s presence, and he stopped pacing around in a circle and walked towards the door where they stood. “How is she?” he asked, his eager eyes dancing all over the doctor.
Sesi rose to her feet and stepped towards the doctor, all ready to get either good or bad news.
“Mr Adams, Ms Hart,” the doctor’s voice calls out, “I don’t know what sort of miracle happened in the last hour, but the patient is awake.”
Lionel exhaled in relief, and his eyes fluttered briefly. “Can we see her then?” he asked.
“Is Zera awake?” They heard Aaron’s voice ask from behind the doctor, and they all turned to him.
The doctor bobbed his head. “The injuries she sustained in the accident are mysteriously gone, so I can say she is. But there are a few abnormalities with her. She threw the heart monitor into the wall, destroying the whole thing. Such strength is surreal for someone who was unconscious an hour ago,” he finished before adding, “Please be careful.”
They wasted no more time before running towards the hall that led to Zera’s ward. Lionel, who took the lead, pushed open the door and walked inside, but there was no trace of Zera in the room.
The needle plugged into her arm earlier now lay tossed onto the floor. She had yanked it off.
“She’s gone!” Lionel said it with a quick gasp. His eyes moved to the damaged heart monitor on the floor in the corner of the room, just like the doctor said, before turning to the Harts behind him.
“Fuck!” Aaron yelled out in frustration, throwing a fist at the wall and making the room shake.
Sesi looked up at him, and her eyes told him to stay still.
“I have to go after her,” he said.
“You can’t!” Ivan spoke up, stepping further into the room.
“Is that a threat?” Aaron demanded, his voice rising.
Ivan maintained his calmness even as he spoke. “It’s advice. She’s a sage, and you’re better off staying away from her.”
“What’s a sage?” Lionel asked, turning to Sesi, who stood closest to him. He was the only one hearing the name for the first time, and curiosity appeared in his voice.
“It means neither a werewolf nor a human, but with the abilities of a werewolf, only deadlier. They have all the strength of a werewolf and have no weaknesses.” Ivan explained, turning to him, “Her kind are rare and powerful with strength as never seen before.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Lionel demanded.
“It can be a good thing if that power is put to good use and a terrible thing if it’s not. She’s capable of unleashing chaos and shaking the realms of the supernatural. Legends have it that the last sage dates back over a hundred years, and he massacred over a dozen alphas in one night. He, however, helped keep the peace between humans and defended them against werewolves who only wanted to prey on their vulnerability and destroy them.”
“It’s how sages are created,” Aaron mumbled to himself, and the eyes of the others moved to him. He noticed their lingering gaze. “That’s why turning a human in a desperate attempt to save their lives was forbidden and always frowned upon. I never understood it, but now I do.”
“I don’t understand,” Lionel said, getting lost with every word.
“Being turned while trapped between the realm of the dead and the living comes with a risk, many of which we don’t fully know. Sages were regarded almost as myths, even among the supernatural. Turning her had triggered the birth of a sage for the first time in a hundred years.” Ivan explained further.
“All that would be useless if she didn’t learn how to control it. She would endanger many people. I have to do something. I created her; this is on me,” Aaron said, walking to the door, but it shut before he could step through, and he knew Ivan had done that.
“Ivan, stand down,” he warned, his voice furious.
Sesi placed her hand before Lionel, silently telling him to stay back because she felt a heat coming up.
“I can’t.” Ivan said, his hand held out on alert, “You put yourself before her, and you will die in seconds.”
“Then so be it.” He seethed and turned to him, his hand balling into a fist.
Ivan stepped forward. “That’s foolishness speaking, brother. There’s a better way around this, and no one has to die, but if you go now, we will never get to it.”
“He’s right!” Sesi spoke up: “You need to think about Zion and what your decision might mean to him. He still needs his father, and you may not have it forever, but you still have time with him, and you should live it out by his side more than anywhere else.”
“I agree that if Zera is really a sage and dangerous, you might be at a disadvantage with her more than anyone else,” Lionel said, finally catching on to everything being said.
Aaron heaved a deep sigh and ran a hand through his hair. “She’s out there, confused and alone, with no one to help or lead her.”
“She’s not alone,” Ivan told him, and he turned to see his brother already dreamwalking.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“Everywhere,” he answered.
…
Zera’s stomach rumbled even though she was currently eating pasta and egg sauce. It had been a long night, and she had spent it on the run. Her memories were still scattered all over the place, and the only memory that was consistent was her need to escape.
She had heard Aaron’s voice while she was still at the ward and panicked for a bit. She knew she had to get away. The last thing she wanted was to face him. Just thinking about it gave her a bad feeling, and flying was the next best thing.
As the morning came, so did her hunger. Luckily, she met with the chef on his way out of the restaurant and told him she needed food. The kind young man had compassion for her despite knowing she had run away from the hospital after noticing her Johnny gown.
He brought her the food in the restaurant’s backyard, and she thanked him for his help before sitting out to eat the food. However, the more she ate, the hungrier she became, and that didn’t help her one bit.
She had almost finished eating when she heard footsteps from behind. She spun around and saw a man with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a pale blue polo and jeans, approaching. He seemed to be in his late thirties, and he walked as if he owned the ground beneath his feet. There was a corny smile on his face as he came and stood before her.
“It is not every day the mentally deranged find their way to the city side,” he said in his hoarse voice, making her ear tingle, and not in a good way.
“Who gave you food?” He demanded, but she remained silent, gulping down the rest of the content in her mouth.
Her stomach still rumbled as if she had eaten nothing.
“When I ask a question, you answer. I owned this property last time I checked!” He snapped, and she jerked, not from fear but from the noise his loud voice made.
She placed her hands on her ears and tightly shut her eyes.
“Oh, you’re indirectly calling me a noisemaker, you weirdo.” He sneered and stepped towards her, grabbing her by the gown she had on.
She snapped, and her hand shut up, grabbing the man by the throat and slamming him against the wall. The man struggled to set himself free, but she only tightened her grip around his neck even more.
“You talk too much,” she growled at him, her eyes turning silver.
His heartbeat hammered away in his chest as his breathing decreased because of her grip. She wanted to reach in and rip it out; all the nerves in her body told her to. Her stomach growled as if he were the food she needed to eat, and her mouth watered. Her hands rose, and her fingers transformed into long, sharp claws, and she almost dug them into his chest when she heard.
“No, don’t!”
She released the man, and he crashed into the tarred ground, coughing and struggling to breathe.
She took to her heels and ran away. She didn’t know who spoke, but she needed to get away from him. She didn’t trust him, and he seemed like trouble.
.
She stole a few clothes from the ropes drying outside and changed into them so that no one who saw her would think she ran away from the hospital or call her crazy. With that done, she ran away from everything as fast as she could.
“Zera!” the voice called after many hours of running through the woods.
She slowed down and fell on her face, then turned around but found no one.
“Who’s there? Who are you?” She asked, terrified of what was happening. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Zera, I am a friend!”
“Where are you?”
“I’m far away, but I know you need me.”
She rose to her feet and turned around. “You’re in my head,” she said.
“Yes, but I want to help you.”
“Then come out. Make yourself known,” she demanded.
“I can’t, not yet.”
“If you can’t show yourself, then I can’t trust you.”
“Zera!”
“Stay out of my head.”
“Listen!”
“Stay out of my head!” she thundered, and immediately the voice disconnected.
After a whole day of wandering, she found a memory that stuck. Someone who was once in her life, someone she could trust.
Daniel.
The thought of him didn’t trigger any trouble within her, and she knew he had to be safe. If she wanted answers, she had to go to him. She came to the city’s suburban side, hoping she would find him by chance.
She watched him fill up his tank with fuel with a heavily beating heart and, after paying, get in and drive off. She followed him, and after thirty minutes of driving, he pulled up at his house. He walked to the boot and opened it up, then pulled out a black bag and a white box. With his hands full, he approached the door of the house.
“Can I help you with at least one?” She asked from behind, and she must have scared him because he gasped and dropped both the bag and the box in his hands.
Her fast reflex kicked in, and she grabbed the bag and box before they could hit the floor.
“Zera!” he called out in a voice overshadowed by panic.
“Daniel!” She smiled a little.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to look for you.” She answered, “I am so sorry I scared you. I just wanted to help.”
“Why are you here?”
“Because I don’t know where to go and because I trust you. My mind is foggy, and a lot of things aren’t making much sense. I have a brief memory of things, but I have a few of yours, and with everything I remember, I can trust you.”
He stayed silent, staring at her as if she had developed three horns. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head and said, “No, I’m not. Can we go in now? These aren’t very heavy, but I’d like to sit down.”
He eyes the bag and box now in her hand before returning his focus to her.
“Yes, sure, we can.”